"They call me Pops' a lot and tell me I'm 40 or 50," Reed said this week. "They ask me how it was growing up in the '50s and '60s. They exaggerate my age all the time."

Reed's four-year pursuit of pro baseball at the start of the decade meant that, by the time he came back around to playing football, he was a non-traditional college player. He turned 24 at the end of his freshman season, not long after he retired from the Chicago White Sox's system.

Tech offensive line coach Matt Moore doesn't mind having a left tackle who's as old as some second- and third-year NFL players - especially this week. The idea of going into a game Saturday against No. 1 Texas and one of the nation's sacks leaders, Brian Orakpo, is daunting enough.

But the least wide-eyed guy on Tech's team might be the left tackle.

Reed's disposition rarely seems to fluctuate. The last couple of Mondays, Tech coach Mike Leach made Reed one of his picks to deal with the media during the team's weekly Monday news conference. There, Reed was unflappable, one week giving a humorous rundown of his and his fellow linemen's nicknames and the next laying out what was at stake for Tech against Texas.

Not that his low-key demeanor varied much. Not even a stadium sideline changes that.

"That's pretty much his temperament," Moore said. "He's always in control. He's a guy that goes full speed, but is able to focus on little things at the same time. He doesn't let his emotions get the best of him is the best way to put it. He doesn't get real emotional when it comes to playing. He doesn't get over-hyped, and he doesn't get down real low, which is definitely a positive when it comes to offensive line play."

Reed admits there were adjustments to be made going from pro baseball to college football. Once signed by the Arkansas Razorbacks as a tight end-defensive end prospect, Reed weighed 275 pounds out of high school. That was heftier than the White Sox wanted.

"As a pitcher, they want you to be loose and limber," said Reed, who usually packed 250 to 260 pounds on his 6-foot-7 frame when his workplace was the mound.

These days, Reed weighs a shade more than 300 as he battles hand to hand with defensive ends.

As a pitcher, Reed noted, he always had a way to maintain control. Even if there were runners on base and a tight situation, the baseball was in his hand. He could speed up or slow down his pitching pace to exert some control.

"Football's fast all the time," he said. "But I got used to that adjustment, and it's been great."

Reed's well-chronicled good fortune as a survivor of stomach cancer and having once toed the rubber to pitch to Barry Bonds provide some explanation for why he might be harder to rattle.

"It's one of those things that comes out in pressure situations more than anything else," Moore said. "He doesn't walk around here like a granddaddy and tell everybody how to live their life. He's just one of the guys. He's just a college kid when it comes to everything, except when it gets to be a pressure situation, he does a real good job of handling it."

Indeed, when asked how his way of life might differ from that of his younger teammates, Reed was at a rare loss for an answer. Regardless of the age difference, he said he sees himself as being much like them.

It's not as if he has little in common with the other Red Raiders.

"For sure, I hang out with all of them - 18, up to the next-oldest guy on the team, who I guess is 23," Reed said.

Reed can only hope that the NFL is just as willing to not show age discrimination. Reed had a solid-enough game last January against Virginia defensive end Chris Long, a high first-round draft choice. He's followed up so far with a quality senior season. The Red Raiders' three sacks allowed are the second-fewest in the nation out of 119 teams.

Reed's working toward a business degree, but it's likely he'll get another chance to be a pro athlete once this season ends.

If so, he thinks what he's learned on the long road since high school can be applied.

"I think it helps to kind of understand how things work and the business side of it and everything like that," he said. "In the NFL, a lot of it's self-motivation. No one's going to make you do extra stuff to get better. If you don't do it, they'll find someone to replace you. It's made me a better football player to know that."